More linear than log? Non-symbolic number-line estimation in 3- to 5-year-old children

The number-line estimation task has become one of the most important methods in numerical cognition research. Originally applied as a direct measure of spatial number representation, it became also informative regarding various other aspects of number processing and associated strategies. However, most of this work and associated conclusions concerns processing numbers in a symbolic format, by school children and older subjects. Symbolic number system is formally taught and trained at school, and its basic mathematical properties (e.g., equidistance, ordinality) can easily be transferred into a spatial format of an oriented number line. This triggers the question on basic characteristics of number line estimation before children get fully familiar with the symbolic number system, i.e., when they mostly rely on approximate system for non-symbolic quantities. In our three studies, we examine therefore how preschool children (3–5-years old) estimate position of non-symbolic quantities on a line, and how this estimation is related to the developing symbolic number knowledge and cultural (left-to-right) directionality. The children were tested with the Give-a-number task, then they performed a computerized number-line task. In Experiment 1, lines bounded with sets of 1 and 20 elements going left-to-right or right-to-left were used. Even in the least numerically competent group, the linear model better fit the estimates than the logarithmic or cyclic power models. The line direction was irrelevant. In Experiment 2, a 1–9 left-to-right oriented line was used. Advantage of linear model was found at group level, and variance of estimates correlated with tested numerosities. In Experiment 3, a position-to-number procedure again revealed the advantage of the linear model, although the strategy of selecting an option more similar to the closer end of the line was prevalent. The precision of estimation increased with the mastery of counting principles in all three experiments. These results contradict the hypothesis of the log-to-linear shift in development of basic numerical representation, rather supporting the linear model with scalar variance. However, the important question remains whether the number-line task captures the nature of the basic numerical representation, or rather the strategies of mapping that representation to an external space.